Our 7-month lab is amazing, but he is so boisterous with guests in the house and people we meet out on walks, and unfortunately whilst we have almost solved the jumping and mouthing with us, with other people all bets are off. He lives in our kitchen mainly - that's where his crate is and he's got a bed out of the crate for during the day (he just sleeps whilst I WFH from the dining table). He's fully crate trained. We walk him morning and evening - maximum 30 minutes per walk, and we train him both on those walks and around his toilet breaks (we'll do some heel walking or sit-stays in the garden for a few minutes after his lunchtime wee, for example). Generally he's pretty calm, for example now he's lying in his bed watching my wife load the dishwasher, and he's well exercised. When we are interacting with other people, whether it's in the house, at their houses, or even outside, he's desperate to greet them and unfortunately that means jumping, lunging and mouthing. I'd like some reassurance that we're doing the right thing and some pointers of what else we can do please!!!! So far, if people come to us he stays in his crate and we don't go into the kitchen with our guests at least until he settles down. That way, he can hear us, getting used to the idea of there being people in the house, but he can't see us. He cries a little and lets out half-barks, but usually settles quite quickly. Once he's settled, one of us will go into the kitchen but will leave him in his crate. Once he settles again, we'll let him out of his crate on the lead. HOWEVER, whilst we think we've done everything right up to that point, as soon as he sees the guests it's back to scrambling, lunging, crying etc. We want to ask our guests to give him a sit command but at the first opportunity he will lunge and jump at them, which in turn will reinforce that behaviour. You can picture the scene at that point: stressed owner holding the lead to stop him getting to guests or leading him away if he jumps at them; startled guests who want to meet the cute dog and "don't really mind" the jumping, stressed, overexcited puppy with no idea what to do with himself. At other people's houses, we just cling onto the lead (unless they have a crate, which is rare), and give him a large frozen Kong to occupy him, but as soon as the Kong is done it's back to being overstimulated by everything and wanting to greet who we're with. Are we doing the right thing in these situations? If not, what else can we do? Should we even let him out of his crate / let him greet guests just yet, or keep working on him settling in his crate with guests around first? Thank you!
Hello and welcome to the forum! It sounds like pretty normal behavior for a 7 month old dog! But that doesn't mean you can't start shaping it into something more socially acceptable Take a look at these articles on our main site. Between them I think they'll help you a lot: No More Jumping Up: How To Stop Your Labrador Leaping On People How To Calm Down A Dog Hang in there!
